Four University of Tennessee at Chattanooga women's basketball players were honored by the Southern Conference's coaches and media Tuesday, led by guard Alicia Payne as defensive player of the year for the second consecutive season.
The Mocs' Jasmine Joyner was named first-team all-league by both the coaches and the media, while Payne, Queen Alford and Keiana Gilbert earned second-team honors.
Mercer won six of the seven superlative awards. Guard Kahlia Lawrence was named player of the year, while Linnea Rosendal was freshman of the year. Susie Gardner was named coach of the year after the Bears went 22-7 and tied for the regular-season championship.
The 6-foot-2 Joyner earned her second consecutive first-team selection after averaging 13 points and 9.3 rebounds a game and blocking 114 shots. She led the league in both rebounds and blocks, with her block average of 4.1 more than the next three players combined.
"That stuff is relevant," UTC coach Jim Foster said Tuesday. "I think we have two defensive players of the year; Jaz leads the country in blocked shots, so that says something about her defense.
"We have four players represented, and that's good news."
Payne was assigned the opponent's primary perimeter scoring option all season long and responded in kind to the challenge. She finished with 39 steals and was the front line of defense for a UTC team that allowed a league-low 49.8 points per game against league competition. She also averaged 6.4 points and 3.8 assists per game, with a 2-to-1 assist-to-turnover ratio.
Alford finished 11th in the league in scoring at 10.4 points per game and was second in 3-point percentage at .418. In league play, she averaged a team-high 14.1 points per contest and shot 46.8 percent from 3-point range while adding 4.8 rebounds.
Gilbert averaged 12.6 points, 5.4 rebounds and 2.2 assists per game, while stepping into more of a ball-handling and facilitator role with the loss of Chelsey Shumpert to a knee injury in November.
The UTC women (21-7) face Western Carolina in the quarterfinals of the SoCon tournament Thursday at 4 in Asheville, N.C.
Contact Gene Henley at ghenley@timesfreepress.com. Follow him at twitter.com/genehenleytfp.